Meritor ABS was complemented by traction control and Wabco roll stability control. We'll get to that in a future drive.īrakes were pretty much what you'd expect: Meritor Q Plus with 15 x 4 in front, 16 ½ x 7 on the drives, all with dust shields. For top ride quality there is an in-house-developed air front suspension, engineered for long travel and with lots of anti-dive. This is the heaviest rated front end and likely the least limber. Up front was a Meritor axle again, this one the MFS-13-122A, a 13,200-pound axle on 14,000-pound parabolic taper leaf steel springs. The air ride combines good, predictable handling with a very compliant ride, as we have noted with the ProStar drives we have enjoyed.ĭrive axles on the test truck were Meritor RT40-145 tandem with a 52-inch spread, despite this truck being referred to as a "Canadian" spec. The drive axle suspension is the same as on the ProStar - a suspension that was subject to significant development for the launch of ProStar a few years ago. Compared to the ProStar's, it has an extra rib that stiffens the frame to prevent beaming under and ahead of the cab on the longer, 260-inch wheelbase. In all, we covered around 400 miles, not a heck of a lot, but better than a circuit of the showroom floor. (But heading south meant I did manage rather handily to miss the worst ice storm to hit northern Indiana in quite a long time.) After an overnight, the truck had to be back for the International holiday shutdown, so I didn't get as many miles on the unit as I would have liked. Wayne, Ind., heading south to the Kentucky border to find a few hills to stretch the Cummins 550 just a little. The plan was to run out of the engineering center in Ft. Fortunately, deliveries commenced late in 2008 and just before the New Year we got our chance to spend a day and a half with this gray-and-red beauty. It was a trial waiting for a new LoneStar to become available for some hands-on evaluation on the road. Inside it is very different, too, with a sleeper treatment styled to appeal to the trucker who's looking for something that not only looks different, but also truly is different, with a new approach to sitting and sleeping comfort. Among these are the industry's only uniquely forged aluminum wheels that are fully styled, beyond the unique handholds of competitive brands. In fact, LoneStar will be fully supported in the dealerships with a host of optional appearance accessories, with more available by order from the factory. LoneStar has everything to complement such high-horsepower offerings, from a drive train to support up to 2,050 pounds-feet of torque through appearance options designed to shout out its significant presence. But because Caterpillar is officially out of the truck engine business in North America as of 2010, that engine will wear International MaxxForce badges. Although it's still not officially announced, eventually post-2010 you'll still be able to get the C-15. Under that hood, today you can get a Cummins ISX up to 600 horsepower (as in the unit tested here) or a Caterpillar C-15 up to 550 horsepower. It's a clever combination of the cab from the still-new ProStar and a long retro-look hood that harks back to D-model Internationals of the '50s. In this case, that means a grab-you-by-the-eyeballs retro appearance that promises the same kind of fuel economy as its best aero competitors. That means it fits in to the marketplace where no other model currently resides. International's LoneStar is what car-guys call a white-space vehicle. A much-anticipated first drive of International's new LoneStar confirms it's more than just a pretty face.
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